The present invention relates to a roller/ice skate base, and more particularly to a skate base to which either a plurality of wheels or an ice blade can be attached.
Applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 06/849,386, which has been abandoned, disclosed a skate which could be used as an ice skate or roller skate. U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,868 discloses a roller skate undercarriage with adjustable rollers. Generally, an ice blade or a plurality of wheels is fixed on the roller/ice skate base by bolts and nuts. However, converting an ice skate into a roller skate or converting a roller skate into an ice skate by this method is cumbersome and time-consuming as the bolts tend to turn while loosening the nuts.
Furthermore, recent innovations have significantly changed the conventional idea of roller skates. Modern roller skates, i.e., rollerblade-type skates, have wheels which are substantially wider than an ice blade. Therefore, in order to accommodate the size of wheels which a popularly used today, the width of the slot in the base of the skate has to be substantial. Meanwhile, ice blades have remained substantially the same width. Therefore, when employed with a roller skate used today, a modification is necessary to eliminate any unstable attachment and to prevent wobbling of the blade and so on.
The present invention provides an improved roller/ice skate base to obviate and/or mitigate the above-mentioned problems.